FAS1220

Chapter 2 : How well do you think?

Develop your thinking skills

Underlying thinking skills:

• Focusing attention - recognize details
• Attention # Concentration
• Comparison
• Sequence
• Categorizing
Ability to pay attention to detail benefits your study and assignments.
Chapter 3: What’s the point?
Identifying arguments

• Argument in everyday language

• Argument in Critical Thinking
• An argument includes:
• A position/ Point of view
• An attempt to persuade others to accept that POV.
• Reasons given to support the POV.
 Argument

• Claim / Proposition / Statement that asserts something to be the case

or Not to be the case
• Premise – a proposition one offers in support of a conclusion
• Inference – A conclusion reached by way of evidence and reasoning
 Argument
Premise
Conclusion

• Argument – a set of reasons or evidence offered in support of a

claim
• A premise – an individual reason or a piece of evidence offered in
support of a conclusion

• A conclusion – the claim that follows from or is supported by the

premise(s)
 Examples

Claim
• Dogs are better pets than cats
Premise 1
• Dogs are more affectionate
Premise 2
• Dogs are more responsive to their owner’s commands than cats
Conclusion
Dogs are better pets than cats
 Key terms

• Premises – Propositions / statements / claims believed to be true; the basis

building blocks for the argument.

• False Premise - A proposition that later turns out not to be true or correct

• Predicate – The assumption that underlies the argument; an underlying point

of view
 Location of the Conclusion & Signal Words

• Start of passage
• The end of a passage

• ‘Therefor’, ‘so’, ‘as a consequence’, ‘finally’.

 Conclusions as Deductions

• In critical thinking, a conclusion is usually a deduction

• Signal words / phrases used for deductions:
- This ought to - This should never
- As a result - This ought never to
- This will
- This should
- This would have
- This must